CHAPTER 5: ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS: THE FORMATION OF THE ROADS
St. George's Fields, called Southwark Field until nearly the end of
the 15th century, formed the common field of the manor and borough of
Southwark. The mediaeval borough of Southwark was granted to the City
of London by Edward III, and the three Southwark Manors, the Guildable,
the King's Manor and the Great Liberty Manor came into the possession
of the City later; the first was merged into the borough by an Act of Parliament passed in 1377, (ref. 122) and the two latter were granted in 1550 by charter
of Edward VI. (fn. a) That charter also granted to the City "Moulter's (Moulton's)
Close" and 39 acres and 3 rods of meadow in St. George's Fields. (ref. 11) The
cost of the charter was paid for out of the Bridge House account, (fn. b) and henceforward this land in St. George's Fields, together with the 17 acres there
which the Wardens of London Bridge had acquired in the first half of the
13th century, were administered as part of the Bridge House Estate.
City of Lond
There are frequent references in mediaeval records to the holdings
of St. Thomas' Hospital, the Priory of Bermondsey and others dispersed in
strips in the fields. Among the Southwark Manor records is a survey made
in 1555 of the way in which the field was divided between the various owners.
It was said to contain 155 acres in all, of which the City definitely claimed
20, but, probably owing to the confusion which had arisen after the dissolution of the religious houses, only just over 90 acres were accounted for; the
survey ends with a note that the residue should go to the lords of the fee,
i.e., the City "yf noman canne clayme iustly any more." (ref. 124)
By 1621 the acreage of the fields had shrunk to 144 (ref. 125) and from time
to time other small portions were built on or enclosed, but it is astonishing
to find the strip system of agriculture with the traditional throwing open for
common grazing after Lammastide persisting there on the very doorstep of
the metropolis until almost the end of the 18th century, and even after the
formation of the roads to London, Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges
across the fields had made nonsense of the original field plan.
To the west, Southwark Field merged into Lambeth Marsh, and to
the north it was bounded by the Bishop of Winchester's Park, known in the
Middle Ages as the Wyllys or Willows. It was low-lying and was intersected
by ditches and ponds and it was for the most part used only for pasture, but
some crops were being grown there in the 17th and 18th centuries. When
Southwark became populous frequent edicts were issued against the casting
of offal and other refuse into the river and so polluting the water supply. The
only easy alternative was to deposit it in the fields, and the records of the
Surrey and Kent Sewer Commissioners contain entries such as: "Yf the said
Conygrave doe carry the Offall wch cometh of his Slaughter house…
from tyme to tyme in wheele-barrowes into the feilds… Then hee may
be tollerated to keepe a slaughter & tripehouse." (ref. 126) There is also evidence
that some of the open sewers which carried away foul water from the tenements
of the Borough flowed back into the fields and not out into the river. (ref. 126) Yet
in the 18th century Londoners came in response to the advertisements to
drink the medicinal and health giving waters sold from St. George's Spa at
the Dog and Duck!
As has been shown in Chapter 1, the swampy nature of the ground in
Southwark was a deterrent to the formation of roads. There were, however,
tracks across St. George's Fields from an early date which were used in dry
weather. One of these, which ran between the north-east side of the fields
and the Bishop of Winchester's Park to the river-side near Paris Garden,
was the subject of a lawsuit in 1618 between the innkeepers of Borough
High Street (backed by the City authorities) and Edward Alleyn and other
inhabitants of Bankside. The former wished to close the path, since visitors
to the theatres and bear gardens near the river were using it instead of coming
up to London Bridge and then taking boat or going along the road on the
river wall, thus depriving the inns near the bridge foot of custom. The
details of the dispute and the plan made in connection with it are reproduced
in Bankside. (ref. 7) Suffice it here that the path remained in use, became known as
Dirty Lane, and, in the early years of the 19th century, was widened to form
Great Suffolk Street.
None of the other paths worn across the fields became a recognized
right of way except the one which ran from Newington Butts to Church
Street, Lambeth, and to the Horseferry there. As is shown in a later chapter
(p. 81) this path probably dates back at least to the 13th century when the
Archbishop of Canterbury built himself a house in Lambeth. The fact that
the path did not cut across any holdings is a confirmation that it was of
early date. It is shown on the earliest known plan of the fields, made about
1555, (ref. 124) skirting Moulton's Close (part of which was later occupied by
Bethlem Hospital) and the three adjoining plots of land. During the 17th
century this path was formed into a road, roughly on the line of the present
Lambeth and St. George's Roads. (fn. a) It thus became the first carriage road
across this open and marshy area (see Rocque's map, Plate 53), but during
the first part of the 18th century it can have been little more than a track.
An Act of 1719, (ref. 127) which ordered that money should be set aside out of the
tolls on Surrey roads for its repair, stated that it was in such a bad condition
as to be dangerous in the winter season. The traffic along it greatly increased
after the opening of Westminster Bridge and Westminster Bridge Road, and
in 1751 a further Act (ref. 128) was passed which not only ordered that the existing
road from the Stones End at Lambeth to the almshouses at Newington
(i.e. St. George's Road), should be opened and widened, but also prescribed
the continuation of Westminster Bridge Road and the formation of Borough
Road, across the fields to Borough High Street, and of New Kent Road,
as a continuation of Lambeth (St. George's) Road from Newington Butts
to the Old Kent Road. (fn. a) The Act specified that the roads were to lie in as
straight lines as possible and that the ground purchased for them should be
not less than 80 feet wide.
Much of the line of the new road across St. George's Fields lay over
City, i.e. Bridge House Estate, property (see p. 50), and in 1753 the necessary strips of land were purchased by the Trustees of the Surrey New Roads
from the City and the other owners concerned. By 1760, therefore, when
Blackfriars Bridge was projected, St. George's Fields were traversed by
two roads running west to east across open ground with a few scattered
buildings on the perimeter, the two chief being the Dog and Duck in Lambeth
Road and the King's Bench Prison in Borough Road (Plate 53).
The erection of Blackfriars Bridge posed an ideal planner's problem.
Approach roads were needed across an open area with no obstacles to circumvent except the marshy nature of the ground and the need for an ultimate
link up with the main roads running south-west and south-east towards the
coast. The flow of Turnpike Acts was in full spate at this time, and it was the
fashion for the landed and coach-owning gentry to take an interest in road
planning.
A number of solutions were put forward. The first to be published
appeared in the Universal Magazine for May, 1765. It proposed that there
should be one main road from the bridge, branching just near Christ Church,
one branch running south-west to Lambeth Marsh, and the other running
south-east to Newington Butts and crossing Borough Road diagonally. In
the following year the supplement to the Gentleman's Magazine contained a
plan purporting to be by a person "perfectly acquainted with every spot"
on the Surrey side of the bridge. He suggested two main roads, one running
in almost a straight line from the bridge foot to join what is now Kennington
Park Road near Newington Butts, and the other connecting this road, at a
point just north of Christ Church, with the New Inn at the foot of Westminster Bridge. The plan also included several subsidiary roads, one of
which linked Newington Butts with Gravel Lane, roughly parallel to the
main approach road to Blackfriars Bridge. The scheme had little to recommend it except immediate expediency. It had no symmetry, the projected
roads joined the older roads at awkward angles, and the main road junction
was placed at Christ Church, too near the bridge for convenient dispersal
of traffic.
In July, 1768, the London Magazine published a plan which approximated to that ultimately adopted except that no provision was made for a
circus at the road junction in the middle of the fields, though one was provided
near Christ Church, the meeting place of two new proposed roads, one
running straight to Westminster Bridge Road and the other to Borough
High Street. This plan was re-issued in 1769 with the lines of roads, as
finally decided, superimposed upon it.
The plan reproduced on Plate 21 was the most elaborate of the
various schemes put forward, with a criss-cross of roads in the middle of
St. George's Fields and five circuses where they intersected. This plan, of
which there are copies in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library and the
Guildhall Library, appears to have been issued separately.
In November, 1767, the City Corporation instructed the Blackfriars
Bridge Committee to prepare a Bill for the approaches. (fn. a) The aim of the
committee and of their surveyor Robert Mylne was, we learn from a later
report, to make "a handsome avenue" through the County of Surrey by which
"Strangers from the Continent" might approach the Capital, and to form
three subsidiary roads. First, "a direct way to Saint Margarets Hill at
the Centre of Southwark to accomodate that quarter and relieve London
Bridge, the Second a Line to Newington Butts where all the Roads from
the South met as in a Center, and thirdly a direct Line to Westminster
Bridge to communicate with all the Villages to the Westward and to accomodate the City with a more short way to the further parts of Westminster,
the Courts of Justice, Houses of Parliament, etc. than by the longer and
incumbred way of the Strand and Charing Cross." (ref. 9) So many conflicting
interests were involved that the committee finally decided to drop the idea
of the side roads for the time being and to ask for powers to construct a
straight road, 80 feet wide, from the bridge to a circus, not exceeding 250 feet
in diameter, at its junction with what are now Borough and Westminster
Bridge Roads, and for two new roads, Lambeth and London Roads, from the
circus to the Dog and Duck (on the site of the Imperial War Museum) and
Newington Butts respectively (Plate 22).
In 1768–69 these proposals were debated in the House of Commons. (ref. 30)
Various objections were raised, (fn. b) but Mylne having, after discussion, come to
an agreement with the Trustees of the Surrey New Roads, the main objectors,
the Bill received the Royal assent in April, 1769. (ref. 129) The rise in the ground
level in the centre of the fields was probably the determining factor in the
decision to make the main road junction there.
Mylne wasted no time. By 26th May, 1769, he had got out his
specifications for the contractors who were to supply the gravel and to make
the roads, including the provision of "stout strong Labourers… accustomed to the Shovel Pick Ax or Wheel-barrow under the Regulation of one
or two experienced Foremen," with an estimate of cost (£15,000). (ref. 130) On 7th
June, he was ready with plans of the new roads and particulars of the area,
owners and tenants of the pieces of ground which would have to be purchased.
A week later an advertisement was inserted in the Daily Advertiser inviting
scavengers and others to shoot rubbish of any kind at convenient points
along the lines of the proposed roads. On 22nd June, the committee gave
William Austin the contract for supply of gravel and William Kyberd for
labour at the price of 1s. 8d. a day for each man, including tools and beer.
Negotiations with owners of property went quickly forward and were practically complete by the end of July. Most of the ground was bought at a flat
rate per acre, or exchanged for other City property, but in a few cases some
further compensation had to be given for loss of trade or amenities. (fn. a) On 4th
June, 1770, just over a year from the passing of the Act, the roads were
completed sufficiently to be opened for general use; a remarkable feat,
especially when one considers the marshy nature of the ground and the
fact that Mylne was also responsible for work on the northern approaches at
the same time. He certainly deserved the formal vote of thanks given him
by the committee "for the great Skill Diligence and Integrity" with which
he had "executed the several important Works entrusted to his Care." The
rails along the sides of the roads were finished early in 1771, and in June
Mylne was able to report that the raising of the new roads "with rubbish"
was complete. (fn. b)
Meanwhile, in June, 1770, the Blackfriars Bridge Committee
decided that an obelisk should be placed in the middle of the circus at the
road junction in the fields, and Mylne was ordered to prepare a drawing.
The design was approved and work was begun on the foundations. A
protest of the Trustees of the Surrey New Roads that it would be inconvenient
to travellers was withdrawn when they were told that lights would be erected
there, and the obelisk was apparently in position by July, 1771, when the
committee ordered that the City arms should be carved upon it and an
addition should be made to the inscription specifying that it was put up
during the mayoralty of Brass Crosby. It was railed in, and four unserviceable
guns were put up as posts to protect it from damage by traffic. The obelisk
remained in the middle of St. George's Circus until 1905, when it was moved
to its present position in what is now the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park
near the junction of Lambeth and St. George's Roads (Plate 42b). The
obelisk, which is of Portland stone, bears the inscriptions—
North face—
ERECTED IN
XIth Year
OF THE REIGN
OF KING GEORGE
THE THIRD
MDCCLXXI
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
BRASS CROSBY ESQUIRE
LORD MAYOR
South Face—
ONE MILE
CCCL FEET
FROM
FLEET STREET
(City coat of arms below)
East face—
ONE MILE
FROM
PALACE YARD
WESTMINSTER
Hall
West face—
ONE MILE
XXXX FEET
FROM
LONDON BRIDGE
For the next few years Mylne was kept busy. There were still some
outstanding matters to be settled concerning property acquired for the roads
and there were lengthy negotiations over the proposal, initiated by the parish
of St. Saviour in 1774, for the formation of a new cross road from Borough
High Street to Great Surrey Street (Blackfriars Road) (fn. a) ; Union Street,
formed on the line of Queen Street, Duke Street and Charlotte Street, was
the ultimate outcome of this project. There were, too, difficulties over the
accounts. In June, 1775, the toll-keeper at Blackfriars Bridge complained
that the greater part of the 2,158 pounds weight of copper taken in tolls
during the previous three weeks was bad or counterfeit, and arrangements had
to be made for the bad coin to be melted down. The total cost of the roads,
as reported by the surveyor in 1780, was £28,607 3s. 1¼d., £1,207 3s.1¼d.
3s.1¼d
in excess of the amount borrowed for the purpose. On the other hand,
the amount raised by tolls and the sale of surplus materials between
Michaelmas, 1775, and Michaelmas, 1779, was £26,367 13s. 6½d. These
figures show that the roads were given heavy use as soon as they were completed and that by 1780 their capital cost was in a fair way to being recovered
out of income. (fn. b) During the Gordon Riots in June, 1780, the toll houses on
the bridge were burnt and the money chest containing about £268 was
stolen. (fn. a) With his usual promptitude Mylne had the toll houses rebuilt within
four months. The week-day tolls were continued until 22nd June, 1785
when the gates and toll houses were removed and sold. In 1782 the committee had ordered that the Sunday toll on foot passengers over the bridge
should be reduced from 1d. to a ½d. The Sunday toll was not finally
abolished until 1811. It produced a net income of about £500 a year for
watering and lighting the bridge.
Although, as will be shown in the next chapter, the responsibility for letting the Bridge House property in St. George's Fields, and
their ultimate enclosure and development, devolved on the City Surveyor,
George Dance junior, it was Mylne who had to see that "the Fronts of
the Houses" were "Conformable to the General Design" of the streets,
and to prevent encroachments on the roads and on the ten-foot strip
on either side of them which the Act laid down was to be preserved clear
of obstructions.
Mylne was a young and untried man when he was first engaged,
and the Blackfriars Bridge Committee agreed to pay him a salary of £350
a year, on the tacit understanding that if he completed the work to their
satisfaction his ultimate reward would be equivalent to that usually paid
to City surveyors (i.e. 5 per cent on all bills less the salary already paid to
him and the allowance to his clerks). In December, 1770, he asked the
committee to adjust the payments made to him, a request which they
passed on to the Court of Common Council with the proposal that he
should receive the equivalent of 5 per cent on all works payments and
1 per cent on purchases and sales of materials. This proposal was refused,
and it was not until 1775, after a further petition from Mylne, that the
Court of Common Council agreed to this allowance being made to him.
After 1773 his salary was fixed at £105 a year (plus the percentage
allowances) a meagre enough sum in return for all his work on the bridge and
its approaches, the embankment at the northern abutment of the bridge, and
the great sewer over the Fleet Ditch, especially as, to quote his own words,
"His Plans were copied and resorted to freely: His Advice was always given
readily without a Fee; and his House open at all times for these Purposes,
as a Public Office." Mylne's reputation as an architect and engineer is well
established; the record of his relations with the Blackfriars Bridge Committee shows that he was also a singularly upright, conscientious and efficient
public servant. He retained his office as surveyor to the Blackfriars Bridge
Committee until his death in 1811.
When the Strand (i.e. Waterloo) Bridge was built under the Act of
1809 (ref. 131) most of the land between its southern abutment and St. George's
Circus was still open ground, and there were few vested interests or physical
obstacles to hinder the making of a wide, straight approach road to meet
Westminster Bridge Road just west of the circus. The purchase of ground
from James Quallett, the City Corporation, Temple West and others was
duly authorized and a 70 foot wide road was completed by 1820. (fn. a)
It was unfortunate that by 1811, when the formation of Southwark
Bridge and its approaches was authorized, (ref. 133) the ground to the north and
east of St. George's Fields was already closely developed and the cutting of a
direct road from the bridge to St. George's Circus, which would have been
the logical finish to the pattern of the main roads in this area, would have
entailed too drastic a clearance of existing buildings to be acceptable either to
Parliament or to the promoters of the company. The 1811 Act prescribed a
60 foot wide road between the bridge foot and Union Street and a continuation to Blackman (Borough High) Street approximately on the line of the
later Marshalsea Road. The first part of this road was built, though even
this was curved instead of having a clean straight line, but apparently the
promoters baulked at the difficulty of cutting through the warren of courts
and lanes which made up the Mint, and in 1820 (fn. b) they obtained an amending
Act (ref. 134) which enabled them to divert Southwark Bridge Road westward,
south of Union Street, to cross Great Suffolk Street and Borough Road, and
join Newington Causeway a little to the north of the Elephant and Castle.
A minimum of 45 feet in width was prescribed for this part of the road.
Expediency had replaced planning in the development of St. George's Fields.
Before leaving the subject of the road structure of St. George's Fields
something must be said about the road junction at the Elephant and Castle,
which for the last sixty years and more has been one of the worst traffic
bottlenecks in south London. The trouble had its origins in 1641, when
John Flaxman, a blacksmith, got permission from the Lords of the Manor to
build a workshop on a piece of waste ground in the middle of the road on
condition that he gave 4s. a year to the poor. (ref. 135) The traffic of the roads, to
Kennington, Walworth and Lambeth, which met there, brought plenty., of
trade to the smithy, and in 1658 the parish officers thought it worth while to
apply to the manor court for a grant of the ground to be held by copy, of
court roll for the benefit of the poor. (ref. 136) In 1672 the smithy was known as
the White Horse. (ref. 135) It is clearly marked as a detached house on the 1681
plan of Walworth Manor (Plate 49). Fifty years later it was leased to William
Benskin, farrier, who covenanted to build a brick house or houses on part of
the plot. (ref. 137) At some date between 1731 (ref. 138) and 1767, and probably about
1760, after the formation of London Road and the New Kent Road, the
smithy became an inn and was renamed the Elephant and Castle.
In 1796, a survey (ref. 139) was made for the parish of the Elephant and
Castle Estate, and it was decided to let it in three lots, one of which was the
Elephant and Castle public house and the two brick tenements adjoining it. (fn. c)
The inn was rebuilt just before 1818 when it was leased to Mrs. Jane Fisher
for 31 years. (ref. 140) This building is shown in Pollard's coaching print which
forms the frontispiece to this volume and in the view of the Newington
Turnpike on Plate 50a.
At the end of the 19th century, the volume of traffic using the
Elephant and Castle intersection was becoming so great that the island site
was seriously impeding its flow. The current leases expired in 1890 and
1892, and in 1891 the Vestry of St. Mary, Newington and the Trustees of
the St. Mary Copyhold Estates agreed on joint negotiation with the London
County Council, for the widening of the Walworth Road. The site was
enfranchised, and negotiations were protracted until 1897, but neither the
Trustees nor the Council were prepared to pay the considerable cost involved. (fn. a)
The whole site was let on building lease, and in 1897–98 the Elephant and
Castle was again rebuilt.
Two schemes had been proposed at this time: the first, put forward
by the Vestry, suggested the moving westward of the Elephant and Castle
site from the Walworth Road towards Newington Butts and the curtailing
of the projection towards Newington Causeway, without any reduction in
the overall area: the second, put forward by the Council, proposed that the
west side of the Walworth Road and the north side of Short Street should
be set back, to ease the flow of traffic. (ref. 141)
In 1930, the Council and the Ministry of Transport put forward
another scheme, not merely for Walworth Road, but for the whole intersection. Parliamentary approval was obtained (ref. 142) , but the financial difficulties
of the depression intervened, and the powers lapsed. The proposed lay-out
was similar to that at the junction of Kingsway with the Strand. The line of
Walworth Road and Newington Causeway was to be retained, but the
island on which the Elephant and Castle stood was to be removed in order
to widen Walworth Road. To the west, a semi-circular roadway, enclosing a
central block of buildings, was to be formed by cutting back all the building
lines between Newington Causeway, London Road, St. George's Road,
Newington Butts and Short Street. The central block was suggested as
suitable for artisans' dwellings, as it would have little commercial value.
The cost of this scheme, including the rehousing of the displaced population,
was estimated at £1,950,000. (ref. 143)
Pre-war fire damage and war damage (some of the most intensive in
London), although leaving the public house and some other substantial
buildings, have cleared a considerable area round the road intersection and
given an opportunity for comprehensive re-development. The County of
London Plan (1943) proposed a diversion of Newington Butts across the site
of the Metropolitan Tabernacle to join a large six-sided traffic roundabout. (ref. 144)
In 1947, it was proposed that the roadway on this roundabout should be
raised so that pedestrians could pass underneath it to a block of buildings
and the Tube station on the island. The five other main roads were to be
widened.
The revised proposals of the L.C.C. Development Plan (1951) (ref. 145) are
due to the high cost of the 1947 scheme and the decision to restore the
Metropolitan Tabernacle. In this latest scheme which is still (1954) under
consideration, Walworth Road is diverted via Draper Street to join Newington
Butts at a subsidiary roundabout, while at the main intersection five roads
converge on a five-sided roundabout with a central grass-covered open island
without buildings. The island on which the Elephant and Castle now stands
will disappear, though the public house will probably be rebuilt nearby. (fn. a)